Transforming Side Hustle to Main Hustle with Michael Adler

Summary

Mastering clarity and strategy is essential for business growth. This episode explores how intentional communication and strategic planning can transform ideas into opportunities.

Watch the full episode on YouTube

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Key Takeaways

• Build a strong board of advisors to guide and support your business decisions.
• Embrace AI as a tool for efficiency, but be mindful of its limitations.
• Intentional communication is crucial for long-term success and alignment.
• Regularly evaluate and adjust your team to ensure fit and effectiveness.
• Plan for the future by considering your business's end goals and potential exit strategies.

Resources

• Brand Success Hub: 32ndsuccess.com/hub
• AI Tools Overview
• Leadership and Strategy Insights

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Chapters:

• 0:04 - Back to the 30 Second Success Podcast discussing intentional communications
• 1:37 - Michael Adler is managing member of Adler Consulting Strategies
• 2:36 - Michael Adler helps people turn their side hustle into their main business
• 4:02 - Entrepreneurship can be taught, but it's also rewarding
• 4:52 - You mentioned a story that your father shared about taking chances in entrepreneurship
• 8:52 - Every decision in every partnership meeting comes down to unanimous consensus
• 13:22 - Sometimes taking on challenging clients can drain life out of nonprofit boards
• 14:11 - You should have a great foundation of terrific advisors to help entrepreneurs avoid mistakes
• 16:01 - What role does intentional communication play in long term business success
• 16:49 - Having a board of advisors surrounding yourself with the right people can help grow your business
• 18:41 - Michael is very intentional about the use of AI and helping people understand it
• 22:50 - Do you think people over rely on the technology and the AI platforms
• 26:39 - It's important to be mindful that everybody has something to offer
• 28:24 - Being mindful of everyone in the room is important when running an organization
• 29:21 - You've been a member of a lot of different boards based on your bio
• 31:03 - Being on a board is a service project, right? Right
• 32:10 - What makes a board leadership team truly effective is attendance levels
• 33:41 - One of the things that we did not talk about is succession planning
• 37:51 - Michael Adler: LinkedIn is the best way for our listeners to connect
• 38:39 - Michael: Better communication creates better decisions. And better decisions create stronger businesses

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 Laura T.🧡💚💙
Host of the 30 Second Success Podcast

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

So hi, welcome back to the 30 Second Success Podcast. And if you've ever had a great idea, a side hustle, or a vision for something bigger, but felt overwhelmed trying to figure out the next step in this episode is for you. Because building something meaningful takes more than passion. It takes clarity, strategy, leadership, and the willingness to ask better questions before making bigger moves. Today's conversation about turning ideas into opportunities, creating alignment before chaos, learning how intentional communications can completely change the direction of a business or a life. If you're building something meaningful, whether it's a business, a personal brand, a nonprofit, a speaking platform, or even a new direction in your career, you know your message, visibility, or communication could be stronger. I'd love to invite you to check out the brand success hub. The hub was created for entrepreneurs, professionals, leaders, and communicators who are tired of overthinking every conversation and ready to communicate with more clarity, confidence, and compassion. Inside, you'll find practical trainings, AI-powered communication tools, messaging support, leadership insight, visibility strategies, and many trainings from incredible experts and guests like the one joining us today. So you can learn more at 30secondsuccess.com slash hub. Now let's jump into today's conversation. Today's guest is Michael Adler, managing member of Adler Consulting Strategies. Michael brings together decades of experience in law, leadership, entrepreneurship, governance, education, public service, and strategic consulting. Throughout his career, he's worked with entrepreneurs, startups, nonprofits, boards, and organizations, helping them make smarter decisions, navigate growth, and create stronger long-term outcomes. But what I especially appreciate about Michael's perspective is this he doesn't just help people execute faster, he helps them think better. He helps leaders slow down long enough to create alignment, ask better questions, and avoid the costly mistakes that happen when everyone assumes they're on the same page. Michael, thank you so much for joining us today. I love having you here. And I am excited about sharing you with my audience. So thank you for joining us. Give us a little, you know, two-second bite about what you what you tell people when they ask you, Michael. So what do you do?

SPEAKER_00 2:46

Yeah, thank you. Uh well, I'm thrilled to be here. Great to reconnect with you. Before we started, we were reconnecting about Bucks County, Philadelphia, and all the places we've lived in together, but not at the same time. Uh, so I'm now the managing member of Adler Consulting Strategies. I've had a 25 plus year in law, still practice law, but mostly what I love to do is turn people's side hustle into their main hustle. Sometimes what that means is somebody's had a paycheck for 25 to 30 years, and he or she has been voluntarily or involuntarily severed and now is thinking about what their next future might be, not ready to retire and ready to get back into it, but has never owned a company before. So I'll take them through that entire process of forming a company, maybe having the contracts they need, thinking about how to grow, how to get financing. Um, and then I also help people nurture their little side ideas. So inventors, entrepreneurs, somebody who still has a full-time job, coaching them through like the right time when they need to quit the full-time job and focus on the venture. And then navigating how to get funding, how to grow the business, marketing, hiring people, kind of the same thing, but sometimes it comes with a business idea. Sometimes it comes from being involuntarily having to start something.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

I love that. I love that you talk about the side hustle. And I one of the things that I have have noticed, there's a lot of people who have amazing ideas, but they never really act on them. Right. So, what do you think keeps most people from making that leap?

SPEAKER_00 4:16

So, entrepreneurship, I believe, can be taught, but some people are making great money and can't see, maybe they're not at that stage of life where they can take the risk. Sometimes it's they don't have six months of income in reserve because they've got to put money into the business and maybe not get a paycheck for six to 12 months. I like to say I haven't had a paycheck since 2013 when I started my own law firm. And I kind of teach my clients that you have to be willing to take risks. Risk is not for everybody, and most people, a lot of people are risk-averse, but it can also be taught and it's very rewarding.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

I love that. You know, one of the things that you shared with me is that you actually you mentioned a story that your father shared about your grandfather taking chances. So can you talk a little bit about that story and how that has shaped how you think about entrepreneurship today?

SPEAKER_00 5:08

Sure. I'll give the short version. Um, I love this story because it's really shaped me, my father, and the clients that I trained. So when my father was six, only child in a Bronx small apartment, uh, my his father, who I never met, he died before I was born, was an accountant with a small growing accounting firm. And one of the clients there had an amazing opportunity for Milton and said to Milton, who was my grandfather, I Milton, I think you're a great guy. I want you to come with me, leave this firm, and be my CFO. But here's the thing: I don't have enough clients for you. I'm not busy enough for you to be full-time. So you'll give about half time to my business. You can keep a few clients, but once we get bigger, I'm gonna have to ask you to give up your other clients and become my full CFO. And my dad, as a six-year-old, heard his mother and his father fighting about this in the kitchen table in the other room. And it was just too risky. And Sylvia kept saying to Milton, What if it doesn't work? What if it doesn't work? We have a six-year-old boy. What if this thing fails? You can't go back to your accounting firm. And unfortunately, Milton actually didn't take that job. That's the story I've heard. And that my father would, whenever they went into Manhattan and looked at a really tall skyscraper, there'd be a tear in Milton's eye, and he'd look at the whole floor and said, Ira, who was my father, see that whole floor? That would have been my department of this company. And I didn't take that opportunity. So that leads to where my father then went into a different career, but eventually went to law school as a second career because he always wanted to. Took that chance, opened up his own law firm. And that's what I did. Worked for big firms first, worked in as a general counsel for some large companies, went back to big firm life to establish my practice, and then opened my own law firm when I was ready to. You got to find the right timing in your life.

SPEAKER_01 6:53

Yes. You know, timing is everything, right? And I'm sure that was one of the things that your grandmother and grandfather had to deal with was timing, especially when there are children, children to feed in the household. But you know what? I love that story because I think one of the things that so many of us realize later in life, I don't know about you, but I'm later in life at this point. The missed opportunities. And but those are the lessons we can pass on to our kids, which is amazing that your father really really that lesson really sunk into your dad, and he was able to share that with you. So it's beautiful. And now you get to share that whole um experience with your clients and help them step into oh, okay, if I miss this opportunity, it may not come around again. And I think that's that's a beautiful uh lesson to learn that that your clients can really learn from. So thank you for sharing that.

SPEAKER_00 7:48

Thank you. And I also share that with my kids as well as they're getting older, my college-age kids, about networking and entrepreneurship and things like that. So and their friends. Yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

Yes, when we impart the wisdom to our children, they and they actually hear it.

SPEAKER_00 8:04

We're getting there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

They will. It sinks in. They may not, they hear it now, but they may not understand it until later. Yes. My my kids are in their 30s and they're they're starting to really grasp it. I know you just gave me that look like really, your kids are 30.

unknown 8:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:23

Early 30s, okay. 30. Well, actually 29 and 30 when I made my daughter older than she is, so I shouldn't do that. So one of the things that really stood out for me was your comment that silence doesn't equal agreement. And that's really powerful. I I would love for you to I would love to explore that with you. So, where did that come from? Where did that that idea or that that inspir that insight come from?

SPEAKER_00 8:52

Okay, so uh let's go into the nonprofit space first, but it can happen in business as well. Um, sometimes the loudest voices in the room dominate. Um but in nonprofit boards, you want to sort of and my first firm shout out to Dwayne Morris, Great Am Law 100 firm. I learned so much. And from what I learned from the partners there, they sort of use the old, it's a Quaker firm, even though it's a national, international firm, every decision in every partnership meeting comes down to unanimous consensus. And they'll stay there until then. But that doesn't mean people agree. And so they'll hash out issues. Like everybody will, you know, unanimously agree. And I love that because this is not like a zoning meeting where five to three, you know, the nuclear plant gets billed. Like these are your partners, these are your board members. So you want to hear everybody's voices and you want to make sure everybody's voice is heard because that's what gets to a full, complete deliberation. We can explore that further, but in the nonprofit world, it shouldn't just be a five to four vote if you have nine board members. Everybody's voice should be heard. There should be compromise. Of course, I wish our political leaders would follow that advice a little more. But uh, when I'm helping my nonprofit, my for-profit clients, um, we talk about sort of getting to a unanimous consensus, which doesn't mean everybody agrees, but everybody's heard.

SPEAKER_01 10:14

I love that. And and you know, that is so important, even in a household, right? Not just in business. But I think if we practice it in all aspects in all areas of our life, that we hear other people out, we would actually see a different perspective that may not always be in our in our periphery. And decisions are made based on hearing alternative ideas.

unknown 10:42

Right.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

And we've I think we've kind of lost a little bit of that in our communication style. You know, a lot of times there's a like you mentioned, the dominant voice, and we want to make sure that everyone is heard, you know, especially someone who may have a more simplistic view of things, and yet when they when they share that view, it really puts things in perspective. So I think yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

Yeah, especially new voices and a non again, nonprofit board, especially. Um, board's been doing things the same way, but maybe you're missing the perspective of one of the constituencies of the groups that you serve. So I when I come in, I kind of do a bit of an audit of who's on the board, what's their background, what's their skills, and maybe what's missing, aligning the mission to the skill set of the board. Maybe, maybe we need younger voices and uh different ways of thinking of it. So I always look at how we can bring someone to the table who may have a little less experience, but a different younger perspective to bring a fresh view to the issues that we're facing.

SPEAKER_01 11:44

I love, you know, that that it that you know, I love saying I love, so it comes out a lot. So but I get excited when we're talking. So that's my favorite, favorite thing to say when we're having a conversation like that. Perspective is so important, especially when you have varying ages. If I I have a client right now who's been talking about this organization that wanted her to come and work for them and do their social media and her, but she's running into a communication gap with them because they are all older members, they've been with the organization forever. Many of them are in their 70s, they don't understand social media. So her community, she's having such a communication issue with them that she finally said, Look, guys, you are just not my client. You're you're just not. You don't understand the power of social media media, you don't understand what it can bring to your organization. You're not willing to expand the organization in a way that will meet the need of the people that you're trying to that you're going to reach on social media. So it's really interesting.

SPEAKER_00 12:47

And I think that's great that that young lady at her age saw the wisdom of that you can't help everybody. Like the best thing any professional can do in whether in a consulting is just say no if somebody's not going to listen, if you don't think you can have an impact. There's nothing wrong with no, there's nothing wrong with turning down a client. There's nothing wrong with firing a client. I do it all the time and proud to do it.

SPEAKER_01 13:10

I know that, and I think that is what makes a strong strategic business when you are working with the clients that are a good fit. And that you are a good fit for.

SPEAKER_02 13:22

Right.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

You know, sometimes we take on people, you know, take on clients that can be a bit challenging and it can suck the life out of a lot of a lot of the goodness that we're doing elsewhere. Um, and I'm sure you see that, especially in the nonprofit world. I've, you know, experienced, have been on nonprofit boards before and stepped away because there was it was just sucking the life out of me. Okay, this is not a good situation. Um, you know, but we could we could actually have a really long conversation around that one. The experience, but there are good experiences well. And those experiences, when you are in that experience that is just is so positive and uplifting, and you feel like you're being heard, it can change. You can just see that the trajectory of the organization is changing as a whole. So you know, what are entrepreneurs or organizations usually missing when they actually move too quickly or make snap decisions that may not be in alignment with the direction they want to go in?

SPEAKER_00 14:26

So there's in the life of an entrepreneur, which is so different than like being in a stodgy corporation that has committees and subcommittees and RD committees and has to go through finance and legal. With an entrepreneur, there's really no time to, you need to make time to reflect. But it's okay to make mistakes, not deadly mistakes, not things that are going to run the company out. But also that's why you should have a great foundation of terrific advisors, because consultants, the ones that are worth their salt, that come to you with a great referral or reputation, can save you a lot of time and money. And I always tell clients that are starting something, I talk about pillars and foundations of success. You should have a good lawyer, a good accountant, a good insurance professional, a good wealth manager who all know each other. This is your sort of paid board of advisors. So don't just keep us all in separate silos. Let's get together a few times a year for dinner over steak, which I happen to like. And like let's get to know each other, but also focusing on your business. So you should have a paid board of advisors. This is how entrepreneurs can avoid mistakes because they're paying a lot of people, they're getting a lot of conflicting advice, and sometimes they're the only decision maker in the company, but they are surrounded by smart people who can, again, bring the issue to consensus. That's why silence, as we talked about earlier, is the biggest mistake. I want to hear from everybody. Everybody has a different perspective, everyone has a different experience, and it's up to the entrepreneur to sort of listen to everybody and decide what's best for him or her to take to the next step.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

I love that. And and you just answered my next question already. So I'm not even gonna add, well, actually, I will tell you what role does intentional communication play in long-term business success? So you you just answered it, right? So really understanding how important it is to be intentional in your communication level, your skill level, your you know, who you're bringing into your business. So I think, and I would love for you to talk a little bit more about having that board of advisors. You know, we hire people to give us advice. We work with, you know, our our CPA, we work with our the different people. I I have an attorney that I work with, I have a financial advisor that I work with, you know, there are people that I trust to give me good advice, and yet there have been times where I've hired the wrong person.

SPEAKER_02 16:48

True.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

And how how do you advise your clients to be, you know, do you advise them to be cautious on who they're bringing into their business? And do you help them set parameters on, or is there some sort of measurement to understand who you need to bring in, when you need to bring them in, or when you more importantly, when you need to let them go?

SPEAKER_00 17:09

Yeah, I can think of a situation about 10 years ago where a young accountant was working with a young client, and the young accountant recommended me for some legal issues. And then it got to the point as the client was growing that I saw that the accountant probably wasn't capable of handling the client's matters anymore. So that became awkward for me, right? Here I am, sort of general counsel for this company, and I'm recommending to my client that maybe so-and-so may no longer be the best. And I said it this way I said at some point I may no longer be the best, and that's fine too, and we'll have that candid conversation too. So when you give that authentic conversation to your client and the advice that they trust, they'll listen to you. And it's really in the best interest of the client.

unknown 17:53

Perfect.

SPEAKER_01 17:54

That is that is a great answer. So thank you for for giving us a little bit more insight on that. Because I think having a board of advisors, having surrounding yourself with the right people will help move your business forward more rapidly and with more intention. And I think that's so valuable to understand for our audience. So if this conversation is resonating with you so far, make sure you like, subscribe, and share the podcast with someone who needs to hear this reminder today. Because so many people are trying to grow faster when what they actually need is clearer communication, stronger alignment, and more intentional conversations. And that's exactly why we have these conversations here. So be sure to like, subscribe, and share. So Michael, one of the things that I love about you is that you are intentional about the use of AI and helping people understand that AI has its place. So, can you share with us a little bit about how AI and technology have benefited you, benefited your clients, and yet the role that you see AI having in business?

SPEAKER_00 19:07

I love the topic of AI. And it's something that we talk about every single day with friends, with clients, with colleagues. I'm amazed by it. I was an early adopter of it. I'm not afraid of it. Um I dabble with it to just make fun things. I use it a bit to sometimes write thought leadership pieces and then move it into different AI sources. Um, I help it to digest big documents. I'm amazed when somebody will ask me, you know, in a franchise agreement on page some in a are we permitted to do this? And the first thing I'll do, I'll try to find the page, but I'll throw it into AI and ask, you know, and then it says, yeah, on page 208, section three, paragraph five, there's the answer. And you review it. It's not something you finally rely upon. There's a lot of mistakes, there's a lot of hallucinations, but it's an amazing tool to make people more efficient. I kind of compare it to like a big, you know, Milton's accounting firm back in the day. I'm not even sure Milton used a calculus. He was probably using abacus. But if someone walked into the office with a calculator, you wouldn't be afraid of it. You would use the new tool. AI is just another great tool that's maybe going to displace people. I wouldn't be scared of that. Learn to use the tool. There's a lot of great tools. Maybe invest in a paid tool and uh and be careful of confidential stuff as well. Understand what you're putting into the large language models and how that might be revealing confidential information of a client. So be wary of what you're doing with the data.

SPEAKER_01 20:44

Oh, true.

SPEAKER_00 20:45

Because that's a whole topic. Yeah, I love it.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

Yeah, yeah. I tell all of my clients to make sure that you go back into the back into the back end settings and and turn off the permissions that allow AI to use your content as training for other people because now your content can become their content. You have to be really careful with that. So make sure you go in the back end and and turn the permission, check the permissions, have the settings right and and do it periodically. Don't just assume that it's going to stay the same, just like other platforms when they do updates, the permissions change. So you need to make sure that you're protecting your um your IP and making sure that that you're not sharing confidential information. You're absolutely right there. I love that. And we've we've actually used it to uh review uh documents for we're actually in a real estate transaction.

SPEAKER_02 21:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 21:42

So we fed it like we had all these documents. I'm like, okay, what does all this mean? Are we making the right offer? Even you know, just looking at it from that perspective. So it can be a great tool for especially document review. It's amazing. And that was one of the things that I think I got my husband hooked on it because we were he was. Doing um RFPs for his business, and he only had to look for a certain piece when he was just putting the documents in and saying, Oh, can you analyze this? I'm like, No, you need to have the right prompt. You need you have to remember that it's a community, you have to communicate with the AI for it to give you what you want.

SPEAKER_00 22:18

And then you can teach it your tone, your voice. Uh, that's very important too, because you want it to sound like you, you don't want it to sound like a robot. I have dozens of examples of like AI things I get in the email, which are just mistakes that people have generated, or you know, if somebody will say, Hey, I drafted this contract and you take a look at it. And there's just so many things that are just not right or obviously AI generated. So if you want it to not look like AI, that's one voice. If you want to just save time, that's another. But you have to be very careful what the product looks like.

SPEAKER_01 22:50

Absolutely. And I think that's one of the, you know, so where do you think that people do over rely on the technology and the AI platforms?

SPEAKER_00 22:59

Oh wow. Um well, software coders are saving things that used to take four months can take, you know, just a few days. I saw a presentation of something with a group on in just this week of people who weren't even a sophisticated software coder who developed something using Claude, which was amazing. Umuse, I mean, certainly lawyers generating legal pleadings has just got to be a no-no. It's just always wrong. It's not there yet. Um, I read things in the trade journals all the time about um even judges who've written opinions with the wrong facts in there because bad input, bad out, there's just a lot of hallucination going on. So legal stuff, um, but wow, and analyzing the data is really what its strength. And it gets better and better. I mean, there's always things that I never thought of, and I know that people who are not in worlds that I'm in to generate brand development and logos and and more sophisticated videos and stuff is just amazing what can be done and maybe have some infringement. There was this famous fight scene, I think, between Tom Cruise and somebody else who were fighting on a roof. Tom Cruise had nothing to do with that, but that's not we got to be careful of that. We have to protect people's also intellectual property and their name, image, and likeness things. It's a new world, it's a fun world, and I'm excited to be part of it. And training for-profit and nonprofit organizations, how to use it, you know, ethically, but also efficiently. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 24:29

That's one of the biggest questions when I started training people how to use it for communication, for brain communications, was how do I keep it? How do I make sure that it still sounds like me and the ethics behind it? Yeah. And I think organizations are really interesting.

SPEAKER_00 24:44

Yeah. Organizations need to have policies about it. Universities need to have policies about it. Again, I was on this panel recently with uh university professors, and they were talking about like we don't fear AI, but really we want the students to learn, not just type inputs into a computer, because it's the learning. So we're not gonna ban AI, but we want them to explain the answer, even though ChatGPT may have given them the answer. Want them to understand. That's the important part. We don't want to we don't want to become robots, but we want to do things more efficiently.

SPEAKER_01 25:15

Right. And and it's so powerful. I think a lot of people don't understand the depth of what we can learn because of it.

unknown 25:26

Right.

SPEAKER_01 25:27

And I think that's one of those you go down that whole, my husband calls them rabbit holes, um, you know, the whole rabbit hole of okay, where did this come from and why is it this? And you know, when you start to look at the sources that AI where the sources that AI is pulling from, or whether even on Google, when you start to use it, when you see the Google AI and you click on the source materials where it's coming from, it can give you a whole big picture that's behind the you know, that little condensed answer it gives you. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 26:02

I would say technology is great when it works. I remember when uh you know, MapQuest, right? When we'd print out directions to go somewhere, and now we have GPS. I can't imagine going to the corner store without GPS anymore because we end up relying upon it. But the other thing, like itineraries, like give me a six-day itinerary for Copenhagen and Switzerland in July of 2026. It would give you an entire thing with a lot of options in like five seconds. It's absolutely mind-blowing and it's only getting better.

SPEAKER_01 26:31

It really is. And and it it just makes everything happen so much faster.

SPEAKER_00 26:35

It can.

SPEAKER_01 26:37

It just it just happens so much faster. So, so you know, one of the things that you shared with me was that you that you said um clarity doesn't come from trying to sound impressive. So, why do you think people struggle with that?

SPEAKER_00 26:54

Well, um, so I will that's interesting. I am a member of a lot of organizations and investor groups and a whole bunch of things. I like to listen first. I go in and I'm not I'm gonna definitely get the temperature of the room and not try to impress everybody by raising my hand immediately and being the first talker. But I'm certainly a thinker and an you know, analyze things. And then as I get more comfortable, I'll be one of the leaders who talk. But it's also important to listen to everybody else. So you have to be mindful when you're speaking that you're not able to digest something else that somebody else has in mind. So it's a great point. Um again, it's about being in leadership, it's being mindful that everybody's in the room for a reason, or else they wouldn't be around the table. And everybody has something to offer, they just offer it in a different way. Their personality is a different way, and everybody who's like an ENTJ on the Myers Briggs needs to understand that not everybody is an ENTJ. Because if we had a world full of ENTJ people around the table, we'd blow each other up. And I say that as a unfortunately an ENTJ person, but I have to be mindful that there's other ways of people who reflect things, speak things, introverted versus extroverted. And everybody has something to add. So the good leader is one who realizes that everybody around the table needs to be part of the solution or the conversation.

SPEAKER_01 28:24

I like that you said being mindful that there are other people in the room.

SPEAKER_00 28:29

You don't see it often enough, but yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:32

Being mindful, and I think there's there is something to that, being mindful of everyone in the room and making sure that everyone is heard. And I think that's especially when it comes to running an organization.

SPEAKER_00 28:45

Yeah. So I was president of a school board for a while, and there were some people who are more talkative than others, but I was always, I guess, mindful because I knew people had things to say, but I wanted them to feel like they were safe to say it or that they were able to say it maybe one-on-one because they didn't want to share something they weren't comfortable understanding and they wanted some more reflection, and that was fine. I just wanted to make sure that they had the chance to be heard either at the table or before or after the table. And that's really how everybody becomes comfortable getting to that consensus that they're comfortable with the decision that the board or the organization is going to go through.

SPEAKER_01 29:21

You've been a member of a lot of different boards based on the bio that you shared with me. And I love that. So, what has attracted you to being someone in that leadership role, uh, you know, in the that board situation in a nonprofit? You know, what has attracted you to that? How has it benefited you personally and professionally?

SPEAKER_00 29:43

That's a great question. So I learn a lot from board service. I had, I think one of my weaknesses was I never said no. So that happened a lot too. And now I'm a little more uh selective of the things that I give my time to. And I guess some things are just uh, you know, when my father got sick and passed of a certain lymphoma, I got involved with leukemia and lymphoma. So there's got to be some passion. And this is the advice I give to people. You can't just join boards to put something on your resume. You have to be, you know, you're giving your time, you're giving your talent or your treasure or some combination of the three. But you also have to be passionate about the mission of the board. You know, if you're not into um, you know, the puppies, you know, saving the puppies, that's okay. Don't join a, you know, a puppy organization. Find the things that are passionate about you. And then you share a common passion with the people in the room, and then they become your friends and they like you, know you, and trust you, and maybe become your clients too. I don't lead with looking for clients when I go to uh a nonprofit organization. I lead with my passions first, and then I find that that's it all comes back because you end up working with people that you enjoy working with.

SPEAKER_01 30:56

I like that. That's great advice. I think that's something that we can all um in really appreciate. But I love that you actually said your board service.

unknown 31:07

Right.

SPEAKER_01 31:07

And it truly is. Being on a board is a service project. You know, I know there are paid board positions. I've actually been, you know, uh people have actually reached out to me about paid board positions. And I've always looked at nonprofits and board, you know, positions as you know, within organizations, as more of a volunteer situation. You know, that in my mind, it is you're giving back to your community or an organization. So I love that you call it you know, your board service.

SPEAKER_00 31:42

Yeah, and you know, everybody should not think of it as a 25-year commitment. It should be a three-year commitment or two or four, whatever the board is. And you know, do your service and get off. Stay involved if you want to be engaged. You can be a donor, you don't have to serve. It's great to have new ideas, fresh leadership, and energy on a board. The the boards that suffer are the ones that have the same 12 people around the table that have all been there and do the same golf outing every for 25 years.

SPEAKER_01 32:09

Beautiful. So again, you answered one of my questions. I was gonna say, what makes a board leadership team truly effective? And I think that's part of the that's part of the answer. But what does what really does make a leadership team truly effective when it comes to a board or an organization?

SPEAKER_00 32:27

Yeah, so I think we've talked about a lot of this already. I measure one of the success of a board is just that the board members show up. But like this is a priority, right? So if your meetings are the third Thursday of every month at 7 p.m., are people showing up on time? That's the first level of engagement. If you're only, if you're barely getting a quorum, got a problem. You got to probably re-energize the board or really talk to people that are committed to the board. If someone is only on your board because they write a million-dollar check, I mean, damn, we want that million-dollar check. But there might be another way they want to be honored, respected, and reserved. They may not want to go to a board meeting. They may not chair that gala. So find what have conversations with everybody on the board so that you're getting the same energy back from everybody and they're opening the doors that the executive director or president needs. And there's just a lot of things that we look at. But sometimes just attendance levels tells me a lot about the board. It doesn't have to be everybody talking at the board meeting. Some people are adding so much by just listening, voting, or giving their opinion in some other way.

SPEAKER_01 33:33

But again, still giving people the ability to have a voice within that organization matters. And I think that's one of the things that that's one of the key things that you've shared with us today. And I thank you so much for that because there's so much good stuff that you've shared. And and I love the work that you're doing. And you know, it's just amazing to have known you for as long as I have to see all the things that you've done. And you know, one of the things that we did not talk about is, and it's something that I love helping my clients think about is how to create you know from a business perspective or from an entrepreneur's perspective, how to create and and set your business up, not just for success, but for sellability. Because at the end of the day, as entrepreneurs, what are we gonna do when we get to the end? Right. That's I think a lot of people don't think about that. Like, are we gonna sell it? Are we gonna, is it a legacy project? Is it something that we're just what are we gonna do with it? And that's one of the things that I go deep into with a lot of my clients because they don't think about it when they started it.

SPEAKER_00 34:39

Right, right. I think that happens all the time, especially with the clients that didn't actually accidentally formed a business, right? So they're in their 40s or 50s, get sick, get laid off or just not happy. So they start a business, they open up a consulting practice, for example. Um, and then it just grows. I mean, your practice has grown exponentially, but I don't know yet if you're thinking about what you will do to retire. So there's a lot of things we do, right? So we first of all shine the pebbles, and it's not a three-month process, it's a 12 to 18 month process before you'd even want to open your books to somebody to look at them if they're buying it. I will say there's another strategy that I like to use a lot with professional services firms, and it's a topic of a whole bunch of other talks. It's finding somebody who's your employee who you can train to become not just your partner, but then your buyer and helping them through the financing process. Or maybe they pay you over five years with the profits of the business. Or maybe you stay on 20 to 40 or 60% of your time as a consultant, but you're not an owner anymore, or less of an owner, and you still get health care because you still need health care for five years until you qualify for Medicaid. Like these are the things you need to think about, not when you're 64, but when you're like 44 or 54, to think about what your succession planned. Maybe you thought your child was going to come on board and your child is not, you know, the same business mind as you. Sometimes the third generation is even worse than the second generation. So we think about this kind of family planning, succession planning, without, you know, keeping the fights off the dinner table and trying to talk about it as a family business. Just depends. But I love the question. It's a lot of what I like to strategize with people over a period of time and without the urgency of we have to sell this business in three months because someone's sick or someone passed away or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 36:28

Yeah, I think that's so important for people to really understand. And I think entrepreneurs have a tendency to approach businesses differently when they have the end in mind.

SPEAKER_02 36:39

Right.

SPEAKER_01 36:40

And I think that's really powerful in the planning and the structure of your business when you start with the end in mind and you know where you want to be and when you want to be there. So, how do you make that happen as opposed to it being a happy accident?

SPEAKER_00 36:56

Yeah, I'll tell you. I work with a lot of restaurant clients, and the reverse of that is when they're just get feeling like they don't want to continue anymore. Waking up at 4 a.m. is no longer fun. And they, you know, they they look for a buyer, and buyers of restaurants don't want to pay what the sellers of restaurants think they should pay. At this point, you have used ovens, used refrigerators, and maybe not a lot of assets. Maybe you have a website, maybe you have bar life, whatever it is. It's a lot less. So those types of things, trying to get the owner to feel like they're getting something in return where you're trying to match it to a buyer that's going to offer something. And sometimes it's, you know, I'll help you build the business, I'll help you franchise this. There's a lot of strategies that can make everybody happy, but just looking at the end and saying the end is here is almost never the right strategy.

SPEAKER_01 37:47

Beautiful. I I think that is so important. And I love, let's just close it right there. Okay. So, Michael, I know you've agreed to share your training in the hub about leadership, coaching, or nonprofit word development. I uh you've got so many different topics. Whatever you want to share with us, I'm open to it. So our yeah, our members will get to see more of you there. But in the meantime, what is the best way for our listeners to connect with you?

SPEAKER_00 38:12

That's uh so you know, I I guess LinkedIn is I have a very robust LinkedIn community. I love to be an open networker. So you can find me at Michael Adler. So Emma LinkedIn slash in slash madler. Feel free to send me a connection. Tell me you saw me on the 30 Second Success Podcast. Happy to give some free complimentary consulting to any customer or friend of yours. And let's scroll your business together.

SPEAKER_01 38:38

Perfect. Michael, one thing I really appreciate about this conversation is the reminder that strong leadership isn't about having all the answers immediately. It's about showing, it's slowing down enough to ask their questions, right? Creating alignment before action and building environments where people feel safe enough to communicate honestly. Because ultimately, better communication creates better decisions and better decisions create stronger businesses, stronger organizations, and stronger relationships. So thank you so much for being with us today.

SPEAKER_00 39:10

Thank you for the great interview. Great job.

unknown 39:13

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 39:13

So if today's conversation reminded you that clarity, alignment, and intentional communications matter, that matter more than rushing toward the next opportunity, then I hope you'll carry that into your next leadership moment, your next meeting, or your next conversation. Because the businesses and leaders that thrive long term are rarely the loudest. They're the clearest. And if you're ready to strengthen your communication, clarify your message, grow your visibility, and build stronger connections in a more authentic and strategic way. I'd love to invite you to join us in the Grand Success Hub. The Hub was designed for leaders, entrepreneurs, professionals, and communicators who are done second guessing themselves and ready to communicate with more clarity, confidence, and compassion while learning practical strategies that actually work today's in today's rapidly changing world. So visit 30secondsuccess.com/slash hub to learn more. And before you go, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who needs as a reminder that intentional conversations still change everything. Until next time, stand in your brand, touch your voice, and remember success is just 30.

SPEAKER_00 40:31

Great job. Thank you so much.